How to Channel More Creative Energy

Do you sometimes feel anxious for no apparent reason? Great!... You
could be on your way to tapping into some extra creative energy. The
eminent, existential psychologist Rollo May suggests that: "Anxiety is
associated with creativity. Anxiety means the world is knocking at your
door, and you need to create, you need to make something, you need to
do something. It is a stimulus toward creativity." Easy to say until you
start feeling anxious. So before we look at creativity let's reflect on
some of the causes of anxiety? Anxiety can be a reaction to certain
unwanted life conditions. A person, place or thing may upset us and the
first reaction to something we don't want is to run away from it.
Therefore anxiety generates energy within us.

But some of us use
this energy to try to avoid anxious feelings and thoughts by numbing
them with alcohol or drugs. Others sublimate their anxious energy by
'doing' things like making or spending money, seeking thrills and
physical pleasures. The problem is that often these things do not lead
to any real or permanent satisfaction. However creating or making
something can give us a deeper sense of achievement, purpose and
satisfaction. Those who have successfully built a cupboard or a piece of
furniture, cooked a fabulous meal, painted or drawn a picture, created
and tended a garden landscape or decorated a home will have experienced
this.

We can think of anxiety as having 4 dimensions and 3 levels.

The 4 dimensions begin with the physical aspects of human being:
-Physical anxiety is triggered by threats to our physique and
physical well being. For example a violent attack, the experience of
dangerous environments, diseases, hunger and thirst.
-Emotional anxiety is closely connected to the physical in that we
translate physical experiences into emotions such as fear, pain,
pleasure, happiness and love.
-Intellectual anxiety is triggered by the thoughts we construct in
our minds based on our stored information, knowledge, ideas and beliefs
about life and the world in which we live.
-And finally Spiritual anxiety can be triggered by an infringement
of our personal boundaries. These are set by what we value, the ethics
and morals we hold dear and the personal meaning we give to life.

Of
course these four dimensions are interconnected and inseparable in a
healthy functioning human being. However when our four dimensions are
integrated we have access to tremendous amounts of personal energy to
apply creatively. The three levels can be thought of as:
-Conscious
-Subconscious and
-Unconscious

The first level is the anxiety that we are
Conscious of and are consciously dealing with directly in the tasks,
challenges and problems we face day to day. These are situations,
people, places and things we recognise as the obvious causes of our
anxious feelings.

The next level of anxiety is Subconscious and
connected to real concerns and worries we have about certain situations
in life; health, relationships and money for instance. However in order
to get on with life we tend to put these worries to the back of our
minds. But the energy and feeling of 'background' anxious thoughts is
always present and can leave us feeling a tightness in the chest or with
a queasy tummy.

Feelings of hunger, dehydration, hormone
imbalance or even uncomfortable clothing are often first experienced and
registered Unconsciously but they can surface as bad feelings that get
attached to environments or people we interact with. It is an
interesting fact to note that most daily anxiety we experience is
unconscious and free floating that starts life as a physical symptom.
For instance - we might suddenly experience the normal actions of a
colleague or friend as annoying when in fact we are just feeling hungry
or thirsty. We can then unconsciously translate these physical feelings
into emotions and thoughts that we then express and turn into actions
which create an event with a negative outcome.

So how can anxiety
become a source of creative energy? There is much research to suggest
that doing something creative is a good cure for anxiety and some very
creative people draw on anxious feelings for inspiration and energy.
For example - the celebrated poet and writer T.S. Eliot S (1888 - 1965)
believed - "Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity" and the
philosopher Charles Frankl (1917 - 1979) thought that - "Anxiety is the
essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation." I think we
can trust that these people had something of value to say on the
subject.

How do we reconcile anxiety with creativity? The first
thing is to recognise that anxiety is fundamentally about the fear of
the unknown and directly related to the fear of death. Creativity can be
thought of as a response to the fear of death and destruction. A good
example of creativity in action is the interplay between high and low
entropic states in the universe which scientists are beginning to
believe caused the most creative momet ever 'The Big Bang'. Or rather
the 'big expansion' as it's fast becoming known.

The most
fundamental act of creativity expressed by human beings is the act of
procreation and it is well document that during war time and disaster
birth rates increase. The psychologist Stephen Diamond Ph.D. offers
that: "Anxiety stems from conflict and creativity is an attempt to
constructively resolve that conflict." So the trick is learning to use
feelings of anxiety to generate the energy to face life's challenges
head on and respond rather than escape from them. Creativity can then
begin to be about facing our fear and finding the courage to create. To
do that we must be willing to take a risk.

I often start a day on
creativity by inviting delegates to pair up and draw each other on
small PostIt's. After two minutes of drawing I then ask them to show
their partner the drawing they have made. At this point many people
express anxiety at showing their drawing to the other person for fear of
being judged as a terrible artist or offending the person with the
likeness (or lack of) they have produced. This is the point at which we
openly discuss the relationship between the energy of anxiety and it's
impact on creativity. The key is to harness the energy of our anxiety
and turn it outwards towards creative action rather than allowing that
energy to turn inwards and inhibit us.

Art therapy is an
interesting example of how anxiety can be sublimated, relieved and
understood through creativity. We need energy to take action so by
utilising forms of creative expression to generate energy like drama,
writing, drawing, painting, dance and music therapists can work with the
nonverbal symbols and metaphors that people produce within the creative
process. In this context anxiety is translated into artwork and
depression and anxiety can be more easily communicated and understood by
the person who is experiencing them.

So next time you feel
anxious, first celebrate that you now have the extra energy for some
creativity. Secondly check where it's coming from and get strategic.
Is the root cause physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual? Once
you've identified the source see if you can harness that energy and
reframe your thinking to redirect the anxious energy towards creating
something. If you're hungry or thirsty use that energy to create
something interesting to eat or drink by combining some tasty or unusual
ingredients.

If it's emotional, intellectual or spiritual produce
a symbol or representation of your feelings, thoughts and beliefs. It
could be a number, an equation or a poem, a sentence, a word or a
doodle. Maybe just make a sound; hum or whistle a tune or write a short
lyric. Anything that releases your emotional anxiety into the world as
an object so you can look at it and maybe share it with others.

Once
you get used to making the connection between anxious feelings and
creativity you will gradually develop the habit and a new capacity to go
directly towards creatively responding to life's challenges. Finally
Carl Jung suggests: "If you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps
you can just create yourself." After all the more we learn about the
universe and our place in it through modern science, quantum physics and
evolutionary biology and psychology the more the meaning of life seems
to be less about finding yourself and more about creating yourself.